Hello everybody,
Yet it’s time for another blog post of mine.
It’ll be a bit different then the others because it’s about our holiday trip to Austria, where we stayed for two weeks. There’ll be a paragraph for every day. But I guess I’ll just start.
We start at Friday the 27th June.
At about 3 o’clock I had to get up so that we could start at 3:30 am. To Austria it takes about eight to nine ours excluding breaks. At about 3pm we arrived at our destination Vent. It’s a very tiny village in the Oetz Valley and its 1900m over sea level. On that day we just had a look round the hotel, which was very nice actually and had a walk around the village. The actual hiking holiday should start at the second day.
At our second day, the 28th it was time for our first hiking trip. The first about 500 metres altitude we took by a chair lift. Then we made our way to the Breslauer Hütte (Hütte means Hut) on an altitude of 2844m over sea level. There we had lunch and then walked without a lot of changes in altitude to the Vernagt Hütte on 2755m over sea level. From there we made our way home to Vent. On the way home I had a terrible headache which did not go away until the next morning. I most probably was because of the extreme height.
The second trip at the next day was supposed to be a rather easy one. We planed to just go to the Hochjoch Hospitz (Another Hut), have lunch there and come home again. Just 5 hours of walking. That shouldn’t be too much. But then the day happened to turn out not quite as we planned it. Just as we left the Hut for half an hour on our trip back to the hotel my mum wasn’t focused to the path for a second as she took a photo. She fell and had terrible pain in her left ankle. But because there aren’t roads to drive on by car in this area she had to walk, well tried to (it was rather hobbling) home. Matthias and my dad went home quicker to get the car because they could pick mum up at Rofen which is the very last village in the valley. But anyway it took hours to get there in the first place but in the end we got my mum home.
The next day we drove her to the doctors in Sölden which is the next lager village in the valley. There her ankle was x-rayed and it turned out that it was broken. That was the end of my mum hiking in the Alps for these holidays. As we came back to the hotel with my mums ankle in a cast. My dad my brother and I went to the sauna before dinner.
The following day the three of us who were still able to walk wanted to climb a mountain called “Wildes Mannle” (Means something like wild man). At first it was very steep but as we walked past the Stablein Alm it was quite alright. An hour and a half later we were just under the top but then had to turn around, because it rained heaps and it was just to dangerous especially for Matthias. So we climbed down again, had a drink and a soup at Rofen and then walked back to my mum waiting at the hotel.
This day wasn’t a very exciting one. We had to go to the doctors again and the doctor told my mum that she could have her surgery on the next Monday. My mum did agree, because she wanted it to be as soon as possible and they are very specialized with ankles and legs in Austria, because of all the skiers in winter who come to break their bones. For afternoon tea we went to another place called Obergurgel.
On Thursday the 3rd we went of pretty early (well not too early) to climb our first really high mountain. Today’s destination was the Kreuzspitze on 3454m above sea level. The first one and a half hours were just plain walking on an easy track. After a drink at the Martin Busch Haus we started walking to the actual mountain. Again the path was very steep and, and this was worse, the weather changed…to the bad. Well we kept walking and made it to the top after we mastered a way over two mad snow fields. We didn’t rest at the top for too long though, because a look at the sky told us not to. Long story short as we climbed down the first snow field it started raining and the rain quickly turned into hail. And I tell you. Being on an extremely high mountain at a very low temperature in a hail storm looking where to step with a seven-year-old crying, because he’s cold. That’s not quite the situation you really want to be in.
Well finally we made it. And it was worth the soup and the drink I had at the hut afterwards. Of course an awesome experience as well. We then walked the rather easy path back to the hotel. There we saw two rainbows at a time. Yeah what I forgot to mention. My dad got his shoe broken. He sort of fixed it with the laces but that was just a temporary solution.
Another day, another unfortunate accident. It all began with us wanting to spend the day at Meran in Italy. But then my dad broke the backside window of our car. A couple of calls and plastic bags later the back of the car looked nice and blue and the new window was ordered. We then just made it to St. Leonard in Italy, because my mum had to go to the doctors again later.
In St.Leonard I had the maddest bread ever. It was a normal break with like half a pig in salami and stuff on it. Well that was the day pretty much. To Italy we drove across the Timmelsjoch, which is a pretty awesome road with heaps of bends.
Another day, another peak. Well, at least for the male part of our family. Today we first walked our well known way to the Hochjoch Hospitz and from there, after a drink, we climbed a pretty steep path up to the Guslarspitzen. The host at the Hochjoch Hospitz told us that it would be quite hard to climb down to the Vernagt Hütte, because there was no way marked. But as we saw what the path was like we decided to try it. Across heaps of rocks and even more fields of snow and a bit of glaciers, not to forget the two little creeks, we ended up at the Vernagt Hütte very exhausted. After having lunch there it wasn’t too hard to walk the last two hours back to the hotel. This was another day of plain walking over about eight and a half hours.
The following Sunday was very rainy so we stayed home and went to the spa in the afternoon.
Monday was our day of fixing up. Whatever problem there was. Mum got her surgery in the afternoon and was picked up at about two o’clock and the other three of us went to Imst to get the car fixed. At night dad and I wanted to wait for mum, who should be brought back to the hotel around midnight. But at about half past eleven she rang us to tell us that it would take until three o’clock for her to be home. So we went to bed. It wasn’t a very exciting day. At least not for me.
Just a little better was ne next one. Mum was still a bit in pain and Matthias, dad and I just went to the Höhrnle, which is a peak near by. It only takes about an hour to get up so that wasn’t too much. At least better than staying home all day.
Our last whole day in Vent should be our last big day of walking. The Similaun Hütte just over the border to Italy was today’s destination. To get there, we first had to go to the Martin Busch Hütte. From there we walked the path to the Similaun Hütte. Half an hour before we reached it, we went on an unmarked way to the spot where they found the iceman, who is called Ötzi in the German speaking countries. From there it took about an hour and a half to get to the Similaun Hütte. After a cup of soup we had to start our way back to be home before sundown. As we were close to the hotel we told Matthias that he shouldn’t run the last kilometre as he was used to. It’s just unbelievable what that little guy is able to do, acknowledging that he’s just about 1,30 metres tall. At about quarter to seven we finally reached the hotel. Again heaps of walking today and I got a couple of blisters. At least I wouldn’t have to walk on the following day.
This was because Thursday was our last day and we only had breakfast before we drove off. The reason for us leaving on Thursday was that my dad had to be at work earlier than he expected. I guess that’s one of the bad things about leading a company. The journey home wasn’t very exciting. But quite warm, which isn’t too nice while driving in a car for hours.
That was it for this holiday. It was a pretty awesome one I have to say. As I already told you, the photos to this will be online in a few weeks, when I got my new laptop. It’s already ordered.
At the moment I’m working at my parents company from Monday to Friday. To earn money as well as killing time. Since Sven went to Canada last Wednesday, I’d just stay home alone which wouldn’t be very exciting.
Well that’s it for now. I guess one of my longest posts ever is finished and I’m pretty glad.
Well the next post probably won’t take too long. We’ll see.
Have a good time till then.
Yours Daniel
Amerika - Washington - Seattle :D
vor 17 Jahren
